In the Name of Science
by PuppetMaster55
Summary: After a successful night's hunt, Doctor Madeleine Fenton has a new ghost she's eager to study.


"Don't do this. _Please_!"

"Oh, I know this is going to hurt, but you're just a shade of the person you were when you were alive. You'll heal right up in no time!" Maddie looked at the array of blades and lasers she had on hand. While the majority of items from our world had no effect on ghosts, she and Jack had worked carefully to make an assortment of lab equipment that would allow them to fully study a ghost when they captured one.

And then she'd shot one down. Had captured it in the Fenton Thermos it had had strapped to its' back (and they'd been amazed to learn that _that_ was where it had disappeared off to).

They finally had Phantom.

The two of them had bickered over who would ultimately do the dissection, with Jack conceding the scientific find to Maddie, since her doctorate made her well qualified to not have the findings dismissed by the scientific community.

A needle went down, a paralytic that had been proven to work on ghosts, and the lab went silent. She pressed her foot down on a switch at the bottom of the table, turning on the recorder. "Patient is a ghost, approximately fourteen years of age as of death. White hair, green eyes, and," gloved fingers slid between lips, and a gurgled moan came out of Phantom, "remarkable dental work. Covering the patient's body is a black jumpsuit with white collar and belt, along with white gloves and boots. Earlier research has already proven these 'clothes' to be a literal second skin, complete with a mock-up of the human nervous system.

"Making Y-incision, patient responding as a human would. Lack of verbal response or defense of any kind due to paralytic derived from the Death Tulip, colloquially known as a Blood Blossom." A rasping moan came from Phantom as she peeled back the skin to reveal a working ribcage, sternum and abdominal wall of muscle. "For further record, it should be made aware that patient is _not_ alive, and any pain the patient seemingly feels is merely psychosomatic in nature. I repeat, prior research has proven that ghosts feel pain in the psychosomatic sense, and are readily and easily capable of ignoring this 'pain'."

She pulled out the bone saw, and watched as the abdominal wall shifted, rippling and bucking as the sternum moved up and down. A quick glance at Phantom's face revealed terror; he was hyperventilating.

"It should be known that the patient, referred to as Phantom, is a newly formed ghost, presumably no older than one year of creation, and still believes itself to be alive. As such, video will show that it is reacting as a living person might under similar conditions."

The saw went down, and Maddie watched as it cut through the bone with the same resistance one might find in autopsy. With a crack-snap, the ribs snapped open. Phantom stopped breathing.

Reaching down, Maddie was careful of the lungs, which were noted to look healthier than anyone could possibly hope to see, and placed her hands around the glowing green heart.

"Ghost core is revealed to take the form of the heart, confirming folklore and speculation of the heart being the source of the soul. The core is connected to the rest of the body through both venae cavae and pulmonary artery. At present, I cannot remove the core from the ghost body, as that would result in the death and degradation of the spectral body as well as the death of the core, so weight will have to be given in approximation. My best estimate would place the core at weighing no more than 21 grams, proving Doctor MacDougall correct in his postulations. What is most interesting is that the core is acting as a human heart would, and – ow – I have to admit surprise at – ow – the core is beating so fast I can best describe it as vibrating. The heat generated by this is incredible." Maddie quickly replaced the ghost core back where it had been taken from. "Further study would need to be done, but I would hazard a guess that the core has a 'heartbeat', of sorts, as fast as, if not faster than, a hummingbirds."

Organs were pulled and cataloged, but nothing was permanently removed. This was the first ghost subject to be captured and autopsied; all the care in the world would be required.

"With abdominopelvic cavity sufficiently studied and cataloged, I am moving to study the brain." This time Phantom was capable of causing the entire body to spasm, so Maddie upped the dosage of Death Tulip extract, and the spasms died down.

Electric clippers were placed in hand, and Maddie began to shave where the incision would go. It had been a point of great debate, whether or not ghosts actually had a brain of some sort, given the all-encompassing nature of their cores, and she would be the first to either confirm or disprove the existence of such a thing.

Maddie cut into the scalp, peeling it away to show green-coated bone. The bone saw was back in hand, and she brought it down to the skull. Phantom's eyes fluttered as the bone was cut into, before the eyelids fell slack.

Twin rings of light appeared at Phantom's midsection.

Three seconds later, Madeleine Fenton _screamed._


End file.
